15 day Family Beach & Bush Road Trip

Day 1

Upon arrival at Cape Town International Airport you will be met and assisted in collecting your rental vehicle. Your detailed welcome pack will have maps and written directions, making your self drive journey relaxed and hassle free.

The Lagoon Beach Hotel offers unequalled views of the mother city’s most famous landmark – Table Mountain. Whatever room you choose to stay in, you’ll be immersed in an atmosphere of contemporary luxury. Ten minutes from Cape Town’s Waterfront, it has direct access to the beach. Abalone restaurant, under the direction of Peter Anderson, is a culinary experience to savor.

Day 2

Today we suggest you take a drive along the Atlantic seaboard to the quaint seaside village of Hout Bay. Here you can take cruise from the harbour to the seal colony on Seal Island. Continue via the scenic Chapman’s Peak Drive to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. At Cape Point, looking at this dramatic promontory jutting into the sea, gives you a good idea of why early sailors nicknamed it the Cape of Storms.

After lunch, follow the coastline northwards via Simonstown, where you can visit the penguin colony of Boulders Beach. End the afternoon with a stroll through the magnificent Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, devoted to the indigenous flora of the Cape Floral Kingdom. A leisurely drive through the leafy southern suburbs will bring you back to your hotel in the late afternoon.

Day 3

We suggest you spend this day at leisure exploring the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. You could take a ferry from the Waterfront across Table Bay to Robben Island. An ex-prisoner takes you on an extensive tour of the prison, which includes a visit to Nelson Mandela’s cell, the limestone quarry and the old leper colony.

This afternoon you could visit the Waterfront’s Two Oceans Aquarium, which is highly recommended for the insight it gives into life in the two oceans off the southern tip of Africa – the cold Atlantic Ocean and the warm Indian Ocean. This evening would be a good time to go up Table Mountain, if the weather was inclement on the previous days.

Day 4 & 5

You have the next two days to spend at leisure at one of Cape Town’s beautiful beaches. There are the beaches of Blaauwberg and Melkbos right at your doorstep or you may wish to drive over to Clifton or Camps Bay.

Alternatively, museum lovers can wander through the South African Museum and the National Gallery, or you could return to the shops at the Waterfront for some shopping.

Day 6

Today you depart Cape Town and drive out to the Winelands with its backdrop of majestic mountain ranges and lush valleys. You can stop for wine tastings at some of the estates along the way, and you will have the chance to purchase some of the wines you have tasted. In your welcome pack there will be some recommendations from our knowledgeable staff on award winning wines, places of interest and events taking place whilst you are visiting.

Spier Wine Estate on the Stellenbosch Wine Route has a cheetah breeding and rehabilitation program where you can get up close with cheetahs. Continue via scenic Clarence Drive, through Strand and Gordon’s Bay to the quaint seaside village of Hermanus, site of some of the best land-based whale watching in the world.

Check in at Grootbos Private Nature Reserve in the late afternoon. Grootbos has accurately been labelled “luxury in harmony with nature”. Set among ancient milkwood trees, the large, private suites give the guest a chance to unwind.

Day 7

Today is at leisure to explore the natural wonderland of Grootbos. Accompany a specialist guide to explore the tidal rock pools and coastal caves and spend an afternoon lazing on one of the safe swimming beaches. The expert guides will also guide you through the 1,700 hectare Grootbos Nature Reserve, introducing you to the wonders of the fynbos and showing you the fascinating relationships between the insects, birds, mammals and flowering plants of the diverse Cape Floral Kingdom ecosystem. There are over 650 species of indigenous plants on Grootbos. You can also take a meandering path through an ancient Milkwood forest with thousand-year-old trees. Grootbos can be explored on foot, by four-wheel drive vehicle or on horseback.

Day 8

After one last leisurely breakfast, you will check out and leave Grootbos late morning. Your route takes you back inland towards Swellendam. This small village nestling at the foot of the Langeberg Mountains has many beautiful historical buildings.

Continue through rolling wheatfields to Mossel Bay, where you can visit the old “Post Office tree”, a 500-year old milkwood tree used by 15th century Portuguese sailors as a mailbox. You can also see a life-sized replica of the tiny ship in which Bartholomew Dias sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.

You continue through the scenic Lake District and the towns of Wilderness, Sedgefield and Knysna, arriving at Hog Hollow Country House near Plettenberg Bay in the late afternoon. Hog Hollow is a 4-star lodge set on the edge of an indigenous forest in a private nature reserve with panoramic views of the surrounding indigenous forests, valleys and mountains.

Day 9

Today you may just want to relax in the beautiful grounds of Hog Hollow and enjoy the swimming pool. Alternatively, you may want to go into nearby Plettenberg Bay and spend the day on one of its beautiful beaches, or go on an Ocean safari.

We can also highly recommend that you take a sedate 45 minute “eco-stroll” along the Robberg Peninsula, a rocky headland which presents a fine example of how plants and animals adapt to the interacting influences of land and sea. Plettenberg Bay has several beachfront restaurants at which you can enjoy a seaside lunch.

Day 10

After a delicious breakfast this morning, we suggest you explore the nearby town of Knysna. This quaint seaside village is full of arty-crafty shops to browse through. We suggest you take a ferry on the Knysna Lagoon, which will take you out to the Featherbed Nature Reserve. A 4x4 trailer takes you up to the top of the Western Head, one of the large sandstone cliffs guarding the narrow mouth to the lagoon. From here you can either enjoy a guided walk down through indigenous vegetation or you can ride on the trailer again.

Enjoy lunch under the milkwood trees on the edge of the lagoon before returning to Knysna. On the way back to Hog Hollow you should stop at Monkeyland. Monkeyland is the world’s first free roaming multi-specie primate sanctuary. Monkeyland is unique in that the sanctuary caters for several species of primate, and they are not caged, they are free to move about the forest, and do so in harmony. Part of the safari, for those who wish, includes walking across a rope bridge which spans a canyon above the forest canopy giving you a birds eye view of a section of the forest and its inhabitants otherwise seldom seen. This suspended bridge is 118m long and is the longest of its kind in Africa.

Day 11

Check out of Hog Hollow after breakfast and drive through the Tsitsikamma Forest, a primeval indigenous forest with towering ancient yellowwood trees, deep gorges and lush vegetation. We suggest you drive down the steep pass to Storms River Mouth, where there are numerous short walking trails into the forest. Particularly recommended is the 1km trail along the river to the swing bridge.
You might want to stop in Storms River Village and do a Treetop Canopy Tour. Here you will experience the wonders of the forest suspended 30 meters up in the forest canopy. The Tree Top Canopy tour involves traversing from one platform high up in a yellowwood tree to another along a steel cable. Guides at each platform inform guests about the forest flora and fauna.

You will then leave the Garden Route behind and enter the Eastern Cape, continuing into the surfing paradise of Jeffreys Bay. Here you check into Diaz 15 beachfront apartments right on the edge of the beach. Set in lush gardens, the Mediterranean style apartments are tastefully decorated and spacious. This evening take a slow walk down the miles of sandy beach, delve into rock pools and stop to watch the surfing at the world-famous Supertubes. The swimming at Jeffreys Bay is safe and the Indian Ocean is warm.

Day 12

Enjoy breakfast and an early morning swim before driving through to Port Elizabeth and dropping off your rental vehicle at Port Elizabeth airport.

Fly from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg, where you will be met and transferred into the Madikwe Game Reserve. The 76,000-hectare Madikwe Game Reserve is one of South Africa’s biggest wildlife sanctuaries. The malaria-free game reserve is home to the Big 5 and over 340 bird species. Share the wildness of Africa in the luxury of the magnificent Jaci’s Safari Lodge, which overlooks game-filled plains. In the late afternoon, an experienced and knowledgeable Game Ranger will take you on your first game drive in an open land rover. Return after dark for a delicious boma dinner under the African stars.

Day 13 & 14

For the next two days your Game Ranger will take you on safari - both by day and night - and on walking trails, learning about the game found in Madikwe, including lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo, elephant and cheetah, tracked and followed off-road, deep into the African bushveld.

There will be two game drives daily, one leaving early in the morning and one leaving in the late afternoon, returning after dark, as these are the best times for game viewing. Animals are at their most active then and some nocturnal animals are still about. Between game drives you can relax by the pool, bird watch from your deck or simply relax in the peace and quiet of your luxurious private suite.